Developing My Model

     Plugging away towards my capstone project, this week yielded a peak in clarity for me.  Our assignment “DQ Prototype Initial Analysis” required just the right amount of synthesizing and motivation that navigated me towards a clearer understanding of where I’ve been, and how that experience is guiding my process as well as goal destination.

     Through the guiding outline of the DQ Prototype Initial Analysis, I was able to relate my project to Dervin, Clark, SITE Model, and Pebble in the Pond ISD Model.  Just taking the time to process through and find connections from these resources to my work was very enlightening. Things began to make more sense when I realized that the SITE Model is actually the ideal model for my project because it brings the content to students through sociocultural subcontext of family, role models, siblings, and peers.  The learning is integrated into the student’s environment in a way that it embeds itself into the values of the network. Learning the alphabet letter names and sounds means spending time with parents before bed, playing a game with an older buddy at the after school program, or figuring out how to beat the next level online with a big brother or sister.

     I also took a moment to discover that, as the SITE Model would predict, my goals are heavily embedded in the sociocultural subcontext of my life.  To go a step further, Dervin’s work would even apply. All of my experiences growing up as a poor latina student in California have led me to this gap filling endeavor that I have constructed.  Nearly every job I’ve had has focused on a similar population in some way or another.

     I really appreciated the steps in this assignment that required us to justify our work. It prompted me to think through some of the next steps in my project and do some further research to confirm that the direction I’m headed is a good one.  Now I feel much better about where I am going and how it is all connecting!